Getting Started with Tesco

Getting Started with Tesco is as easy as completing these simple steps. You will want to reference each step in this guide while you are going through your Tesco Launch Process.

Please remember that Tesco is an invite-only marketplace – all sellers must be pre-approved by Tesco to launch.

Launch Options

Because the launch process with Tesco requires ChannelAdvisor launch management, the Launch Plus service is required:

Launch Plus Service – A paid service offered by ChannelAdvisor that allows for you to stay in contact via email with and get a limited number of telephone trainings from a dedicated ChannelAdvisor Implementation Specialist, but also includes additional setup elements and assistance: the setup of your Tesco template, the assisted upload of products and help launching products to Tesco. To enquire about this service contact Sales for more information.

Prerequisites

Please remember that Tesco is an invite-only marketplace. You will need to complete the following steps:

Contact your ChannelAdvisor representative or Customer Support to express interest in the Tesco Marketplace.

Configure Inventory

Before listing your products on the Tesco marketplace, it is important to be aware of Tesco's listing/data requirements (they call this their Data Model). Tesco should provide you with this information upon acceptance into their seller program.

Determine Your Tesco Categories

Tesco requires that you categorize each item you wish to list on the marketplace in one of their Tesco Categories. Tesco will provide category mapping based on your lowest level category data during the launch – after launch it is your responsibility to categorize your products. The entire list of categories can be found here: Tesco Categories (refer to the column entitled “ICC”). Sellers are responsible for mapping Product Types to Tesco's values.

If this kind of information does not already exist in your inventory, you may need to add a new attribute to your inventory and populate that attribute with the values that Tesco accepts. To learn more about adding attributes, please refer to the Using Inventory Attributes page.

If you already have a similar data point in your inventory but your values do not match the Tesco values, you can utilize a business rule or a lookup list to transform your value to match a Tesco Product Type.

Product Variations

Tesco supports variations in several categories. To check which categories (or ICCs) support variations, refer to the latest version of the Data Model , paying particular attention to the column entitled “Variant”.

Item Descriptions

Item descriptions (Tesco refers to this as ‘Marketing Text’) have to meet high standards. The following list comprises the criteria Tesco requires:

Configure Marketplace Settings

Configuring your Tesco Settings will set the foundation for your account integration with the marketplace. You will select a label that will be associated with the inventory you want to send to Tesco, define quantity settings and enter account information. Begin by navigating to Marketplaces > Tesco > Settings. View the Marketplaces Settings page for more details on the set up.

Note: In the Tesco Settings you'll find the option Filters - Do not send zero quantity items. We recommend to activate this option.

List Your Products

Once you have completed the Marketplace Settings you will need to complete the Tesco Product Mapping Template in ChannelAdvisor, located under Marketplaces > Tesco > Product Mapping > Template.

Mapping the Template

ChannelAdvisor Product Mapping Templates are used to define the exact data that will be sent to the marketplace when creating or updating a listing. The template will contain all the fields accepted by the Marketplace and will allow you to specify what product information should be sent for each product listing. You will have four options to complete each template field. The option that works best for you will depend on how you have prepared your inventory for each site's data requirements.

For detailed information on how to utilize templates in ChannelAdvisor please visit the Customizing Template Fields page of the Strategy and Support Center.

Tesco Template Strategies

Be sure to complete all required template fields indicated by a red star. Below is a list of these fields:

Category – This is the ICC (refer to the Data Model for more information) that your products should be listed in. Limited to allowed values on the Data Model, it is also case sensitive.

Brand – Consumer facing brand name. Can also be the manufacturer name of your products. Limited to 40 characters.

Description – Additional information about your product. Limited to 4000 characters. Only permitted to contain <br> HTML tags. Tesco asks that sellers provide enough information for the buyer to make an informed decision regarding their purchase.

GTIN – The product identifier for your products. Up to 14 characters permitted.

Type – Within each ICC, Tesco further breaks down the category by product type. Sellers are required to map their products to these types. List of allowed values are held on the Data Model or you can view them on the template.

Selling Price – Listing price of your product, up to 2 decimal places. Numeric value only. Prices are assumed to be in GBP.

Product Image 1 – At a minimum, Tesco requires images to be 500 x 500 px. Maximum size accepted is 2000 x 2000 px and the file size should be no larger than 1MB. Images must be in .jpg, .gif, .png or .tiff format.

Tesco Test Products

Tesco will liaise with your Launch Manager to create several test purchases to test the order process.

Activate Integration

Activate Tesco Integration

At this stage your account is ready to be activated to communicate and exchange data with the Tesco marketplace. First you will assign the label you selected in your Tesco settings to your designated inventory items. Next, your ChannelAdvisor Launch Manager will need to activate the marketplace feed.

Note: Tesco needs to give sellers permission for their account to go live. You will need to liaise with your Tesco Partner Manager and your ChannelAdvisor Launch Manager to agree on a date.

Communication Frequency

Now that your Tesco integration has been activated, ChannelAdvisor and Tesco will be able to communicate. Depending on the number of SKUs and the complexity of your inventory information, the amount of time it takes to process, communicate, and update on the marketplace could vary. Refer to the Marketplaces - Processing and Communication Frequency page for more information on this subject.

Manage Your Listings

Once your Tesco integration has been activated by your Launch Manager, you should begin seeing activity almost immediately. You may notice that some of your products have not listed properly or have not listed at all. It will be crucial that you consistently manage your Tesco account integration in ChannelAdvisor to monitor these issues.

Tesco Product Dashboard

ChannelAdvisor provides you with a dashboard that assists you with this effort. The Tesco Product Overview page is a marketplace-specific dashboard that provides you with an overview of the current status of your sales from the Tesco marketplace. You can access this page via the menu from Marketplaces > Tesco > Products > Overview.

Product Status View

The Product Status view will serve as your Tesco listing management headquarters. From Marketplaces > Tesco > Products > Product Status, you will be able to view detailed information about all of the products you are sending to Tesco. You will be able to monitor the performance of your items as well as troubleshoot any listing errors you may have received. For further guidance, see our pages on Common Tesco Errors and FAQs.

Resolving Tesco Errors

There is a wide range of listing errors that you may receive when listing to Tesco. Resolving these errors can typically be accomplished by utilizing one of these two methods.

Method 1: Edit Your Template Mappings – The Tesco Template is what tells ChannelAdvisor what data to send. Failure to map the appropriate fields with the appropriate values from your inventory can result in listing errors. When you receive a listing error it is almost always a good idea to check your template.

Method 2: Edit Your Inventory Data – If you find the template appears to be mapped correctly and in accordance with Tesco's specifications, more than likely the source of the error is in your inventory data.

Fulfill/Cancel Orders

Sales are handled through the integrated shopping cart of each Marketplace. Order information details are then imported to ChannelAdvisor in the All Sales view (Sales > Orders/Transactions > Orders) where you can manage your fulfillment process.

Importing Orders

From your All Sales view you can easily manage the fulfillment process for all orders imported from the marketplace. Whether you use ChannelAdvisor or a third party fulfillment system to manage your orders, ChannelAdvisor offers the tools to optimise your fulfillment strategy.

After a purchase is completed, the ChannelAdvisor Complete software automatically imports all the relevant order details needed for fulfillment. Tesco orders should be imported within 15 minutes after the purchase.

Once imported, your orders will appear in the Sales > Orders/Transactions > Orders view alongside all other orders.

Update Shipping and Tracking

After fulfillment is complete, your next step is to update the ChannelAdvisor Complete software with shipping and tracking information. This step is important since you will not be paid for your sales until this information is received by the Marketplace. Once your tracking numbers are provided and your order status is updated to shipped, ChannelAdvisor will send this information to the Marketplace. There are three primary methods to complete this process.

Cancelling and Refunding Orders

A refund is only necessary if you have already marked the order as shipped. If you have not marked the order as shipped, cancelling an order within our system, will cancel the order on the Marketplace. If the buyer contacts you after their purchase looking for a refund, you may process their request by going to the Sales > Orders/Transactions > Orders view.

Getting Started with Tesco is as easy as completing these simple steps. You will want to reference each step in this guide while you are going through your Tesco Launch Process.

Please remember that Tesco is an invite-only marketplace – all sellers must be pre-approved by Tesco to launch.

Launch Options

Because the launch process with Tesco requires ChannelAdvisor launch management, the Launch Plus service is required:

Launch Plus Service – A paid service offered by ChannelAdvisor that allows for you to stay in contact via email with and get a limited number of telephone trainings from a dedicated ChannelAdvisor Implementation Specialist, but also includes additional setup elements and assistance: the setup of your Tesco template, the assisted upload of products and help launching products to Tesco. To enquire about this service contact Sales for more information.

Prerequisites

Please remember that Tesco is an invite-only marketplace. You will need to complete the following steps:

Contact your ChannelAdvisor representative or Customer Support to express interest in the Tesco Marketplace.

Configure Inventory

Before listing your products on the Tesco marketplace, it is important to be aware of Tesco's listing/data requirements (they call this their Data Model). Tesco should provide you with this information upon acceptance into their seller program.

Determine Your Tesco Categories

Tesco requires that you categorize each item you wish to list on the marketplace in one of their Tesco Categories. Tesco will provide category mapping based on your lowest level category data during the launch – after launch it is your responsibility to categorize your products. The entire list of categories can be found here: Tesco Categories (refer to the column entitled “ICC”). Sellers are responsible for mapping Product Types to Tesco's values.

If this kind of information does not already exist in your inventory, you may need to add a new attribute to your inventory and populate that attribute with the values that Tesco accepts. To learn more about adding attributes, please refer to the Using Inventory Attributes page.

If you already have a similar data point in your inventory but your values do not match the Tesco values, you can utilize a business rule or a lookup list to transform your value to match a Tesco Product Type.

Product Variations

Tesco supports variations in several categories. To check which categories (or ICCs) support variations, refer to the latest version of the Data Model , paying particular attention to the column entitled “Variant”.

Item Descriptions

Item descriptions (Tesco refers to this as ‘Marketing Text’) have to meet high standards. The following list comprises the criteria Tesco requires:

Configure Marketplace Settings

Configuring your Tesco Settings will set the foundation for your account integration with the marketplace. You will select a label that will be associated with the inventory you want to send to Tesco, define quantity settings and enter account information. Begin by navigating to Marketplaces > Tesco > Settings. View the Marketplaces Settings page for more details on the set up.

Note: In the Tesco Settings you'll find the option Filters - Do not send zero quantity items. We recommend to activate this option.

List Your Products

Once you have completed the Marketplace Settings you will need to complete the Tesco Product Mapping Template in ChannelAdvisor, located under Marketplaces > Tesco > Product Mapping > Template.

Mapping the Template

ChannelAdvisor Product Mapping Templates are used to define the exact data that will be sent to the marketplace when creating or updating a listing. The template will contain all the fields accepted by the Marketplace and will allow you to specify what product information should be sent for each product listing. You will have four options to complete each template field. The option that works best for you will depend on how you have prepared your inventory for each site's data requirements.

For detailed information on how to utilize templates in ChannelAdvisor please visit the Customizing Template Fields page of the Strategy and Support Center.

Tesco Template Strategies

Be sure to complete all required template fields indicated by a red star. Below is a list of these fields:

Category – This is the ICC (refer to the Data Model for more information) that your products should be listed in. Limited to allowed values on the Data Model, it is also case sensitive.

Brand – Consumer facing brand name. Can also be the manufacturer name of your products. Limited to 40 characters.

Description – Additional information about your product. Limited to 4000 characters. Only permitted to contain <br> HTML tags. Tesco asks that sellers provide enough information for the buyer to make an informed decision regarding their purchase.

GTIN – The product identifier for your products. Up to 14 characters permitted.

Type – Within each ICC, Tesco further breaks down the category by product type. Sellers are required to map their products to these types. List of allowed values are held on the Data Model or you can view them on the template.

Selling Price – Listing price of your product, up to 2 decimal places. Numeric value only. Prices are assumed to be in GBP.

Product Image 1 – At a minimum, Tesco requires images to be 500 x 500 px. Maximum size accepted is 2000 x 2000 px and the file size should be no larger than 1MB. Images must be in .jpg, .gif, .png or .tiff format.

Tesco Test Products

Tesco will liaise with your Launch Manager to create several test purchases to test the order process.

Activate Integration

Activate Tesco Integration

At this stage your account is ready to be activated to communicate and exchange data with the Tesco marketplace. First you will assign the label you selected in your Tesco settings to your designated inventory items. Next, your ChannelAdvisor Launch Manager will need to activate the marketplace feed.

Note: Tesco needs to give sellers permission for their account to go live. You will need to liaise with your Tesco Partner Manager and your ChannelAdvisor Launch Manager to agree on a date.

Communication Frequency

Now that your Tesco integration has been activated, ChannelAdvisor and Tesco will be able to communicate. Depending on the number of SKUs and the complexity of your inventory information, the amount of time it takes to process, communicate, and update on the marketplace could vary. Refer to the Marketplaces - Processing and Communication Frequency page for more information on this subject.

Manage Your Listings

Once your Tesco integration has been activated by your Launch Manager, you should begin seeing activity almost immediately. You may notice that some of your products have not listed properly or have not listed at all. It will be crucial that you consistently manage your Tesco account integration in ChannelAdvisor to monitor these issues.

Tesco Product Dashboard

ChannelAdvisor provides you with a dashboard that assists you with this effort. The Tesco Product Overview page is a marketplace-specific dashboard that provides you with an overview of the current status of your sales from the Tesco marketplace. You can access this page via the menu from Marketplaces > Tesco > Products > Overview.

Product Status View

The Product Status view will serve as your Tesco listing management headquarters. From Marketplaces > Tesco > Products > Product Status, you will be able to view detailed information about all of the products you are sending to Tesco. You will be able to monitor the performance of your items as well as troubleshoot any listing errors you may have received. For further guidance, see our pages on Common Tesco Errors and FAQs.

Resolving Tesco Errors

There is a wide range of listing errors that you may receive when listing to Tesco. Resolving these errors can typically be accomplished by utilizing one of these two methods.

Method 1: Edit Your Template Mappings – The Tesco Template is what tells ChannelAdvisor what data to send. Failure to map the appropriate fields with the appropriate values from your inventory can result in listing errors. When you receive a listing error it is almost always a good idea to check your template.

Method 2: Edit Your Inventory Data – If you find the template appears to be mapped correctly and in accordance with Tesco's specifications, more than likely the source of the error is in your inventory data.

Fulfill/Cancel Orders

Sales are handled through the integrated shopping cart of each Marketplace. Order information details are then imported to ChannelAdvisor in the All Sales view (Sales > Orders/Transactions > Orders) where you can manage your fulfillment process.

Importing Orders

From your All Sales view you can easily manage the fulfillment process for all orders imported from the marketplace. Whether you use ChannelAdvisor or a third party fulfillment system to manage your orders, ChannelAdvisor offers the tools to optimise your fulfillment strategy.

After a purchase is completed, the ChannelAdvisor Complete software automatically imports all the relevant order details needed for fulfillment. Tesco orders should be imported within 15 minutes after the purchase.

Once imported, your orders will appear in the Sales > Orders/Transactions > Orders view alongside all other orders.

Update Shipping and Tracking

After fulfillment is complete, your next step is to update the ChannelAdvisor Complete software with shipping and tracking information. This step is important since you will not be paid for your sales until this information is received by the Marketplace. Once your tracking numbers are provided and your order status is updated to shipped, ChannelAdvisor will send this information to the Marketplace. There are three primary methods to complete this process.

Cancelling and Refunding Orders

A refund is only necessary if you have already marked the order as shipped. If you have not marked the order as shipped, cancelling an order within our system, will cancel the order on the Marketplace. If the buyer contacts you after their purchase looking for a refund, you may process their request by going to the Sales > Orders/Transactions > Orders view.